Is Labor Day Still a Holiday for You?
As Labor Day approaches this weekend, I’d like to take the opportunity to celebrate and applaud everyone who no longer needs this national holiday for a day off!
If you’re in this elite group, you no longer depend on a paycheck from the work you do because you did such a good job exercising the discipline and dedication to work, save, and accumulate over decades of your working life.
Take a moment to reflect on what an incredible accomplishment that is – especially if you entered this elite group this year.
You put yourself in a position to no longer need to work to support your desired lifestyle for the rest of your life, which joint life expectancy statistics demonstrate will likely be 30+ years!
Historically speaking, this is extremely rare. Aside from the super wealthy, i.e. the Rockefellers and Carnegies of the world, the whole concept of “retirement” (i.e. living without a paycheck from work to support your desired lifestyle) hasn’t been around very long.
Prior to “retirement” becoming a reachable goal for the masses, you worked until you passed away, or until you were physically unable and your family supported you.
If you’re in that elite group who has built up enough savings to no longer need to work to support your desired lifestyle, you’re in a very special minority.
Be incredibly proud of that!
If You’re Still Working…
If you are still working, you likely fall into one of two categories:
Group One: You’re working, not because you have to, but because you still “want” to.
You’ve carefully prepared, you know your numbers cold, you’ve run your retirement resource forecasts, and you know you don’t need to work for a paycheck anymore. However, you still enjoy what you’re doing so why give it up?
Personally, I will never “retire” by society’s definition.
As I shared in my book, The Relaxing Retirement Formula, we know several individuals who choose to continue working in some capacity, but are doing it 100% on their terms. Just because “society” defines “retirement” as no longer working doesn’t mean you have to live that definition.
With no financial necessity driving them, many keep doing their work but stop going into the office every day. They work from home or from their second home down south during the winter.
Others go half time or completely redefine their professional lives. They leave one business and launch a completely new one, sometimes in the same field, sometimes in an entirely different one. I saw an operations officer become an entrepreneur, and a software engineer go to work for a theater company. But they were both doing the same thing—exactly what they’d always wanted to.
Some create a hybrid working retirement. They sit on boards or consult in their industries—doing so only on their own terms. They arrange their lives so they can go to warmer climates for six months a year and conduct their important meetings by telephone and Zoom. They apply their business and leadership skills to charitable organizations, or they become mentors.
Some hire a weekly landscaping service because they never want to do yardwork again. Others mow their own grass into their eighties because they like the exercise. A fulfilling retirement is one that frees you from chores and obligations that annoy you, not makes you give up any of the work you enjoy.
True retirement does not mean stopping work. Instead, it’s your ability to do:
- What you want,
- When you want,
- Where you want, and
- With whomever you choose to do it with
All free of dependence on a paycheck from the “work” you do to support your lifestyle.
That’s what I refer to as “the catbird seat,” and that’s the position you want to be in.
Group Two: You’re working because you believe you “need” to.
If you’re in this camp, the question I have for you is, how do you know?
If you’ve done all the necessary homework, you know your numbers cold, you’ve run your retirement resource forecasts, and you’ve carefully determined that you still need to work, that’s great. You’re making a rational decision. You’re making the decision to continue to work based on fact, not emotional opinion or social convention.
However, we’ve encountered far too many individuals who still grind it out every day, not because they want to, but because they believe that they still “have” to. And the reason they think they “have” to is rarely based on careful analysis and fact. It’s typically based on many years of conditioning, like:
- “You can’t retire if you still have a mortgage”, or
- “You have to wait until you’re 67 when you can collect full Social Security”, or
- “You can’t retire unless you have $2 million, $3 million, $4 million…”, or
- “You have to wait until you’re eligible for Medicare because nobody can afford health insurance.”
The answer for all of these conditioned beliefs is “maybe.”
Maybe they’re true for you, and maybe they’re not.
None of these statements is a universal truth. The answer lies in your personal numbers because everybody’s priorities and resources are drastically different.
Over the last 35 years, I’ve met many individuals who have “substantially underestimated” their ability to stop working if they want to, only to find out that they could have stopped working one, two, or three years ago, but they didn’t know it.
Imagine finding out that you could have afforded to comfortably stop working three years ago if you chose to, but you didn’t even know it.
Don’t fall into that trap. Take the time to rationally understand your own personal numbers to the point where you can confidently make educated decisions instead of basing your life decisions on erroneous “rules of thumb” or “outdated” conditioned beliefs.
As anyone who has achieved total financial independence will tell you, knowing that you don’t need to work for a paycheck changes everything.
This is intended for informational purposes only. You should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this document serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from Savant. Please consult your investment professional regarding your unique situation.
Jack Phelps
Financial Advisor / Managing Director